Pete's Place

Sept 11-13, 2009
As many of you know, September is my favourite month of the year and one of my favourite activities is the annual get together with my Tromper buddies! These guys have hiked the entire length of the Bruce Trail over a 25 year period and with that conquered, this year's Tromp was scheduled for Pete's Place, Peter Burton's unique octogon shaped cottage on Lake Isabella just north of Parry Sound. The other Trompers arrived on Thursday and I pulled in Friday afternoon with boat in tow. Once I got settled in, I took a few of the boys out to catch a few fish. The guys are seasoned Trompers, but not anglers and I was anxious to put them on a few fish to show them how much more enjoyable fishing was compared to dragging your butt up a bunch of rocks!! Confidence was much higher than reality as the bass proved hard to locate on this pretty little body of water. Here's Gary and Doc in deep concentration doing a little "Drop-Shotting".


By the end of the weekend only a few Pike and a small bass were caught, but as usual the company was excellent and the scenery spectacular!

We retreated back to the cottage for one of many fabulous meals and relaxing nights.

The next morning we arose to a beautiful misty morning.


The view from Pete's Place is something out of a magazine. Talk about serene beauty!!


This was going to prove to be a day of adventure. We paddled to the other end of the lake in canoes and kayaks. Bud and I paddled a canoe down the lake and returned in the kayaks, a first for me.


Nobody told me how hard it is to get out of one!!!!


Next, in keeping with unusual experiences I took a dive and went for a swim in the lake to cool off!! Water Temps were still in the low 70's....................... very refreshing!!!!!






Doc and Bag went waterskiing, but I did pass on that......been there done that 8o)


Saturday evening started with the Annual Quoits Tournament that Peter and I were quickly eliminated from!
This was followed by another fabulous meal.

Here's Doc, Bud, Bag, Gary and Peter

The highlight of the evening was a Jupiter sighting through Gary's fantabulous Telescope!!! You could see 4 of Jupiter's moons and also make out the colour bands on Jupiter!! Really amazing!

Sunday we went into Parry Sound for a little investigating.


I got this close to the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, but it was closed on Sundays (next time!!).


We did do a short hike and Doc and I met a guy that let us take his electric bike for a spin.


We arrived back at the cottage and I was preparing to take my boat out of the water. Doc shoved me away from the dock, but unfortunately in the wrong direction and the motor was heading towards the rocks on shore! Doc quickly circled around and took one step in the water to get a bit closer to the boat. It was a BIG FIRST STEP.........

hahahahhahahahahahahahahaha.......Doc is a great guy!!!!

Just another great time with a bunch of great guys.
Thanks for the memories!

U2

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
We got tickets from Terry & Mandy for the U2 Concert at the Rogers Centre. The wild looking "Thing" (Spaceship??) is a special stage that was pretty amazing. They actually have three of these on the tour as it takes so long to assemble and disassemble. Word is that it costs over $800,000 for each show so they haven't broken even yet!!


The dome was open which provided an awesome view (CN Tower) and much better acoustics.


The concert was excellent and the view was good thanks to the Big Screen that came down out of the space ship. It would actually change shape!








It was an awesome show and a great night out with the kids!

Humbled!!

Wednesday, Sept. 9
Today was the day I had been waiting for....The Bass Pro Associate's Classic. The top 10 teams from the four summer tournaments would qualify for the Classic. I finished 4th overall out of about 20 boats to qualify. I had not pre-fished a tournament all season and had made out pretty well so I didn't pre-fish this tournament either (big mistake) despite the fact that all the other qualifiying teams had. The tournament was being launched at Camp Ashtabula on Pigeon Lake which provided access to the Tri-Lakes (Pigeon, Upper Buckhorn and Chemung).
The weather at launch time was excellent:


Pogger and I took off for Buckhorn with a bunch of waypoints that I had been given from a couple of buddies. Most of the strategy was based on working the shallows believing the bass had still not moved to deeper water. We worked the first few points to no avail. We moved from waypoint to waypoint throwing everything out there. Paul caught a little one that looked like it might measure the minimum 12 inches. We work a weed patch by a rocky shoal near the main channel and I finally catch one. Its bigger than Paul's but certainly no monster. We decide to abandon plan A and headed the 10- 15 miles to the north end of Pigeon Lake. We worked a few rocky shoals but nothing. We headed the 10 miles back near the launch and finished the last couple of hours fishing a shallow bay nearby. What a downer coming in to weigh knowing that we had eliminated ourselves.
When we went to weigh our fish, Paul's fish did not measure which added insult to injury. We weighed in my one fish for a miserly 1.86 Lbs.


It turns out that the guys that won only had 2 small dinks 5 hours into the tournament. They started fishing a deep weedline right off the launch site and caught and weighed in 5 fish weighing 14.76 lbs!


The neat thing was that Jay had gone to Michigan only 4 days earlier to pick up his Ranger Bass Boat. What a great way to celebrate his new aquisition!!
They won $1000 for first place and another $300 BPS gift card for big Smallmouth (4.12 Lbs.)


Paul and I finished a dismal 9th, but still collected $150.
Not a great performance, but still a good day on the water with one of my boys.